Standalone Blog Pages

April 24, 2012

LGBTQ Equality Riders Met With Mormon Leaders In Salt Lake City

For The First Time The LGBT Group Was Allowed To Meet In The LDS Administration Building - And Not An Outhouse

Soulforce is a fantastic national non-profit organization who works tirelessly to end religious and political persecution
of LGBTQ people. Soulforce is a secular advocacy group, that has
embraced the non-violent principles personified by Dr. Martin Luther
King.The Soulforce website describes why they focus on religious organizations.

Our
roots are in challenging religion-based oppression because the
religious right is a powerful cultural and political agent with
financial force underpinning its work. The beliefs, actions and
rhetoric of the religious right lead to the loss of jobs, healthcare,
educational access, financial security, and social inclusion for LGBTQ
people. When we challenge the political platform of the religious right
from our LGBTQ context, we are also challenging other forms of
oppression including sexism, racism and classism.

Every
year Soulforce travels across the country visiting cities and towns,
big and small. The Equality Ride engages church leaders, teachers,
students, and administrators at schools that openly discriminate against
LGBTQ people. They have a conversation, share their personal stories,
without the strident and divisive rhetoric that is often so prevalent
when two very different groups tend to meet. Soulforce describes the goals of Equality Ride 2012:

Our
mission is simple. We aim to visit the hundreds of schools in the
United States that openly discriminate against Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual,
Transgender, and Queer individuals and their Allies (LGBTQA) through
their policies and practices. On these campuses LGBTQA students and
faculty are forced to suffer in silence. If they come out they are
subject to expulsion and can even be forced into harmful “ex-gay” or
“reparative” therapy programs.

Since
its inception, the Equality Ride has catalyzed conversations and
dialogue at these otherwise silent institutions. We have witnessed real
change in practices and policies. Riders have worked to establish and
strengthen Queer/Straight alliances all across the country. People have
been provided with safe spaces in which to address the suffering they
often feel at the hands of their schools and/or faith communities. We
strive to begin conversations at the institutions we visit. We go into
these communities at the request and in collaboration with the very
folks who are suffering in silence. We approach these communities with a
relentless form of non-violent resistance.

Equality Ride 2012 is currently in Salt Lake City, Utah where they met with officials from the Mormon Church (LDS). According to reporter Peggy Fletcher at the Salt Lake Tribune:

Gay-rights
freedom riders met for more than two hours Monday with a handful of LDS
officials in Salt Lake City to raise continuing concerns about Mormon
policies and language that the advocates see as harmful to their
community.

The
group, Soulforce’s 2012 Equality Ride, had four specific requests for
the LDS Church: to cut all ties with and denounce Evergreen
International, which continues to use "reparative" therapy in its
treatment of gays; to stop funding groups that are fighting civil
marriage equality across the country; to encourage LDS Business College
to bring its policies on homosexuality in line with current Mormon
teachings; and to add sexual orientation and gender identity/expression
to the faith’s policies for church employees.

LDS
officials did agree to keep meeting with gay activists on the national
and local level. That, he said, is a sign of forward movement.

The
television news report of the meeting said this year was the first year
that Soulforce was allowed to meet with LDS officials, within the LDS
administration building.Even
though I’m skeptical about some of the overtures that the LDS church
has made recently to the LGBT community, due to the fact that Willard
Mitt Romney is running for President, the Soulforce crew was optimistic
that they would keep the dialogue with the church open. Peggy
Fletcher wrote that Jason Conner, Equality Ride’s co-director,
described the meeting as "overall positive," noting that LDS legislative
lobbyist Bill Evans in particular was "very gracious and hospitable." The Soulforce Equality Riders are unsung heroes in my book. If you’re not familiar with their work, check out their website at soulforce.org.